For ten years, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, have
been used as a pretext for endless war -- tens of thousands dead in Afghanistan;
more than a million killed in Iraq; and a campaign of repression at home, carried
out against thousands of Arabs, Muslims, and now, even the peace movement. The
road from 9/11 led the FBI to my door, with an early morning raid on my home,
and a secret grand jury investigating two dozen peace activists on terrorism charges.

When the Bush Administration used the events of September 11
to justify war against Afghanistan, I joined thousands to march against that
war. How many of us knew it would become the longest war in US history? Costing tens of thousands of lives, and nearly
500 billion dollars, this war has lost the support of the majority of Americans.
Even so, the Obama Administration continues Bush's war, making it his own.
Under his command, the war has expanded into Pakistan, and the "war on terror"
is still offered as justification for aggressive military policies across the
globe.

After 9/11, a war was launched on civil liberties inside the
US. In an effort to clear the way for endless war abroad, the government
created fear of an enemy within. I watched in shame as this unfolded first
within Arab and Muslim communities -- thousands of immigrants were rounded up
and questioned, many detained or deported. This has become a permanent campaign
of repression and it has now expanded beyond the Muslim immigrant community.

The PATRIOT Act, with 160 provisions, opened the door for
unrestrained spying on American residents and citizens, authorizing the FBI and
other agencies to tap our homes, read our emails, and comb through our trash.
It laid the groundwork for a network of undercover agents hiding within our own
communities, from mosques to peace groups. At the same time, we witnessed
massive scale racial profiling, especially at airports, where Muslims, Sikhs,
Arabs and South Asians were questioned and searched, sometimes denied boarding
onto flights they had paid for.

Under the guise of counter-terrorism, domestic spying
mushroomed. There are now more than 164,000 suspicious activity reports
maintained by the FBI without criminal cause, and a mounting list of so-called
terror plots manufactured by the FBI and ensnaring individuals not suspected of
involvement in any other criminal activities. The dangers of collaboration
between local, state, federal and private agencies are highlighted by last
month's shocking reports that the CIA is operating in violation of the law, to
spy on Americans through the New York Police Department.

A legal campaign has targeted Arabs and Muslims engaged in
political or charity work that runs counter to official US foreign policy. Dr. Sami Al Arian of Tampa, Florida, was an
outspoken defender of civil liberties for Arabs and Muslims in the US, and
worked for the cause of the Palestinian people. Since his very public arrest in
February 2003, Dr. Al Arian has spent five and a half years in prison, much of
that time in solitary confinement. He has now been under house arrest for 3
years. All of this, while government prosecutors failed to win a single guilty
verdict against him for charges stemming from his political organizing. In
another important case, The Holy Land Foundation was the biggest Muslim charity
in the US when its leaders were brought up on charges of material support to
terrorism. They were convicted and sentenced to 15 to 65 years each, for the
crimes of sending money, food, clothing, medical and school supplies to
Palestinian charities.

Even while I was aware that some of this was happening, I
never imagined that I could be next. But at 7am last September 24, 8 FBI agents
burst through the door of my home, and spent 5 hours going through every room, searching
for evidence that I had given material support to foreign terrorist
organizations. The search warrant entitled them to seize any property
associated with my political activism, organizations I've worked with and
anything about Colombia or Palestine -- evidence of what I believe, what I say
and who I know.

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Before my phone was seized, I insisted on the right to call
an attorney. He got the word out, and supporters began to gather outside my
house. I soon learned that coordinated raids were being carried out at 5
Minneapolis homes and the office of the Anti-War Committee, as well as two
homes in Chicago. At the same time, agents from 5 different FBI district
offices were trying to question political colleagues across the country, from Michigan,
North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Arizona and California.

Our family was stunned. My partner
and daughter were still in their pajamas when the agents stormed in, and I was
still upstairs in bed. For hours, we couldn't move freely in our home, without
being accompanied by an agent. As we got dressed, went to the bathroom, or made
our six-year old daughter's breakfast, we were under constant guard. They said
that we were not detained, but it seemed wrong to leave these strangers alone
in our home, and our daughter's school day did not start until 10am. So we
tried to shelter her from them as much as we could, playing cards in the front
yard with community members who came to stand with us.

Reporters came by, asking me to
comment on the raid while it was under way. With my invaded home as a backdrop,
I tried to explain. It was clear that my anti-war activism was the target of
the raid, especially my work in solidarity with the peoples of Colombia and
Palestine. The search warrant zeroed in on international travel to these two
war-ravaged nations, as well as the Anti-War Committee, and Freedom Road
Socialist Organization. Without a script, or any chance to speak with others
whose homes were targeted that morning, I began the work of defending myself,
the organizations I work in, and the movements I have helped to build. On one hand,
I and my colleagues were well-known in our communities as leaders of the
movements protesting U.S. wars and militarism. On the other hand, local and
national news reports named and pictured me, caught up in a high-profile
terrorism investigation. So early that Friday morning, it was a rude awakening
that the war on terror had come to my home.

Before the FBI left my home with a truck full of my
belongings, still not returned a year later, they left me with a subpoena to
appear before a Chicago grand jury just a few weeks later. To date, a total of
23 activists from Chicago, Grand Rapids and Minneapolis have been issued
subpoenas for that grand jury, and in May the FBI initiated another raid on the
home of a colleague from Los Angeles. All of us are standing up and speaking
out against what is happening to us.

We have been standing up and speaking out in opposition to
the "war on terror" since the day it was launched. We have protested every US
war and aggression. We have extended the hand of solidarity to the peoples
targeted in these wars, and resisted the criminalization of liberation
struggles around the world. It is this very work that put us in the crosshairs
of a government investigation that has criminalized international solidarity as
a whole. Like Dr. Al Arian and the Holy Land Five, the government will claim
that sending a few dollars to support kindergartens in Palestine is a crime,
and that motive for our crimes can be found in our own words, when we have
spoken out for the rights of people to resist war and demand justice. Our
political work in opposition to the aggressions of the US government has made
us targets.

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Since last September, we have learned more about how the "war
on terror" extended its reach to our doorsteps. Just as has been the case with
those targeted earlier on the home front of this war, we were spied on,
infiltrated, and now we are being pursued for what we believe and who we know.
Like so many of them, we have now been placed on air travel watch list, and are
subjected to pat downs and having our belongings rifled through every time we
fly. While many of them had their immigration status threatened, I've had my
passport seized.

And just like many of them, we have refused to help the
government make its case against us or our friends.

At this point, almost a year since our homes were raided, we
still wait to hear what the government has planned for us. None of us has
spoken to that secret grand jury in Chicago, and the prosecution has not yet
brought charges against us. But they have sent a clear message that we remain
in the crosshairs: The prosecutor has told our attorneys that they are seeking
multiple indictments (they won't say against which of us). They have refused to
return most of our property or our passports, no doubt holding it as evidence
against us.

Jess Sundin is a mother and activist from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her home was one of those raided by the FBI in September 2010, as part of an investigation of anti-war and international solidarity activists for allegedly providing material support (more...)